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"It is evident that the applicants (Sarika, Suman and Sangeeta) had been playing hide and seek with the court and despite the dismissal of the bail applications by the apex court and issuance of non bailable warrants by the trial court, they did not surrender, rather preferred to file another application for grant of anticipatory bail...," the court said.

It also said the mala fide conduct of the accused disentitled them to any discretion from the court.

"Bail is a discretion. Any person who seeks discretion of the court of law has to approach the court with clean hands. They cannot mock the justice system on the pretext of availing their legal rights," the special judge said while dismissing the bail plea.

According to the complaint, the three, along with other accused persons, availed around Rs 21.30 crore between April 17, 2013 to October 23, 2013 from Dhanlakshmi Bank by pledging spurious and fake gold ornaments.

It was also alleged that during routine inspection and reappraisal, it was found that the content of the gold pledged by the accused was very less compared to the loan availed by them. This was confirmed on subsequent re-verification by the bank as the ornaments were found to be spurious.

"It is prima facie apparent that the pledged gold is not of 22 carat, which was an essential requirement for availing gold loan," the court noted after going through the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report.

The anticipatory bail application of the accused was dismissed by the Delhi High Court in May last year. In September, the apex court also denied relief to accused from arrest after which they went absconding.

The court noted that instead of surrendering, they tried to take a chance before the sessions judge saying they were ill-advised earlier.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)